


First Loss of War

by GoldenVendetta



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Gen, Introspection, Mentions of blood and wounds, Sadness, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-04-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:35:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23481769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoldenVendetta/pseuds/GoldenVendetta
Summary: Not everyone will survive. A brief moment of silence for the departed.Spoilers for the Black Eagle Crimson Flower route.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	First Loss of War

**Author's Note:**

> This came to me this morning and pestered me until I scribbled it down. Sorry it’s so short. I’m in a bit of a writing slump.

It was a rather nice day, despite the killing. Around the professor, Imperial soldiers carefully gathered and laid out the dead. Edelgard had been adamant that all of the fallen were to be treated with dignity, no matter which side they had been serving.

Byleth looked down at the bodies of the two who he had once given advice to. Friendly gifts. Shared meals with and tea. Five years ago, these had been students with hopes and dreams, and though not of the Black Eagle House, he had treated them with the same attentiveness and kindness as if they had been. 

He didn’t know what he should be feeling. Sadness for the loss of life, certainly. Perhaps guilt that they had been cut down by his own blade? He had been a favored instructor. They had once looked up to him. They did so again now but in quite a different way, sightless gazes staring unseeing past his head to an uncaring blue sky from out of blood-splashed, ashen faces. 

Ignatz’s glasses were cracked on the right side, the smudged lenses reflecting the cruel sunlight in a white glare. Hands that had wanted to dedicate themselves to art now lay limp and folded over his sword-pierced stomach, the unhappy outcome of taking up a bow rather than a paintbrush.

Beside him, blood-matted pink hair stood out in vibrant contrast to the ground below it. Hilda’s fashionable attire that she had always been so fond of was rent and ruined by the multiple gashes and crimson stains covering her torso. A fly, the first of many attracted to the scent of fresh carrion, landed and crawled along her slack bottom lip.

Byleth reminded himself that they had chosen to walk this path the same as everyone else. They had chosen to take up arms and fight. Death was an ever-present, inescapable part of war. It was only through sheer luck if everyone you liked or loved escaped its horrors unscathed. And yet, he wondered if there might have been more he could have done to prevent this outcome. Were their deaths really unavoidable?

He felt a presence at his elbow and glanced to the side. 

Edelgard had come to stand beside him. He saw her gaze flick briefly over Ignatz and Hilda. Her jawline tightened for the briefest second before she turned away to face him.

“Time may have changed the directions our paths traveled, but these were still once my peers. To take their lives was no easy task, you have my word.”

Byleth nodded in silence.

“We must mourn the dead later, my teacher,” Edelgard continued softly. “For now, help me plan our next phase of attack so that we may preserve the lives of the living as best we can.”

Byleth nodded again and turned, walking towards the command tent, away from memories of halcyon school days and a simpler life that he hadn’t known he would miss until it was gone forever.

Edelgard was right. The time of grieving should be in the future. There was work to be done in the present.

**Author's Note:**

> Kinda sad that you really *can’t* save everyone. Only certain people join you. -_- Oh well. They will live again in a different play through.
> 
> Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this at all, I would be happy to read a comment! This is my first foray into Fire Emblem fandom. Did I start off okay?


End file.
